Christmas Morning in SXM

Now, if you’ve been to St Maarten this time of year you know what it’s like. If you’ve never been but wanna visit St. Maarten during the Christmas season there a few things you should expect to see or will hear about while here.

In no particular order:

Tart, puddings, cakes, ham, turkey, etc. Basically…FOOD! There is so much food to be had during the Christmas season. I think that’s the only reason I wanted to come home when I was going to school in the US. Just kidding…kinda. But seriously, if you’re a sweets lover then Christmas is your time. Well if you’re a foodie in general. I think a good comparison to our Christmas would be to an American Thanksgiving. There’s just so much food!

2. Alcohol. Well alcohol is a year round event but during Christmas is when you have your different rum punches, Guvaberry, Puncha Kuba, Sorrel, and then your regular alcs. But Guavaberry, especially, is more of a Christmas drink. You expect to see, hear about or drink Guavaberry during Christmas. And I’m gonna give you guys an insider secret, I’m not talking about the Guavaberry they sell in the stores. I’m talking about the drink made straight from the fruit. But I couldn’t tell you the difference, either version is too strong for little ol’ me.

3. Traffic. If you’re in a warm part of the world you get this. All those poor souls that live in those seasonal places flee when the weather gets colder than they can handle. Then where do they go? To us, of course. This is why we, in the Caribbean, usually refer to Oct – Apr as our ‘high season.’ This is usually when persons are fleeing the cold of where they’re from and seek refuge in our sunshine. Good for the economy but sucks for the traffic situation. For such a small island to spend 10 minutes in one spot when it would take you 10 mins to get you where you needed to go… you can imagine the frustration.

4. People. See previous point. Not only do we get persons from other countries coming on vacation but we also get our students that are abroad for school that come home for Christmas. Reasons? See point one. And if they live in the US of A, see point two. (We can drink at 18 at home and need to be 21 in the US. )

I think that’s about it. The main things that stand-out during Christmas time on this little rock. Oh, and be aware that we also celebrate Boxing Day (Dec 26) so businesses are usually closed on that day too, except tourist attractions.

Hope you decide to come check us out and see if what I said was myth or fact.